Across New England on Columbus Day, people are taking stances, vandalizing statues of Christopher Columbus.

In Connecticut alone, vandals spray-painted on or around statues in four cities and towns, including Middletown, Bridgeport, Norwalk, and in New Haven’s Wooster Square over the weekend.

OK, look, I get it. I studied history in college (and have a degree in the subject). I know Christopher Columbus was a horrible person. He did awful things. Really, there’s no need to convince me. I get it. Honest.

I know, for example, that Columbus wasn’t really revered prior to the publication of his biography by Washington Irving. Through the 19th century, veneration of Columbus became a point of pride for ethnic Italians, and other Catholics, in the US. The anniversary of his landing in the New World wasn’t even made a national holiday until 1937. So there isn’t really that extensive a tradition behind it.

But … vandalizing Columbus statues? Really?! Is it absolutely necessary to deface, damage or destroy other people’s property? Can’t veneration of Columbus be protested in other — less criminal — ways? Have things really reached the point where people are too childish to understand this is wrong?

This just goes to show, it’s not just Rightists or religionists who can be fiercely militant, irrational, and immature. The Left, and anarchists, are more than capable of it, too.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2017 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Fuzzy Thinking, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.